Merryland

[j_cheney]

I finished reading Merryland by Josh Pons this morning. This is a two-year diary of a horse racing farm in Maryland. I enjoy diaries in that they give unexpected insights that statistics often do not, but I read very few of them.

This is easy to read, but the language is often arcane. There are references to various things that only horse people would know, which are not explained for the laymen. I even had to look up the word pinhooker, which might be compared in real estate terms to a 'flipper', I think. I was quite worried that it meant 'renderer' until I found it on-line.

Anyhoo, what did I get out of this book?

1) 50% of your racing stable is injured at all times.

2) 1.5 out of every 1000 starts dies. Yep, dies. Can you imagine if 2 out of every 1000 NFL players starting a game dropped dead in the endzone? Yeesh!
The stables in question lose a few horses during the 2 year span of the diary. That's the painful part.

3) Starting a horse racing at 2 is pretty scary, as their bones might not be fully developed (at least, that's what I understood). Also, 2-year-old is an inflexible term, as a race horse turns a year older on Jan 1, not their actual birthdate. If you have a really late foal (say born December 20), when January 1 rolls about, it's lumped in as a yearling, just like the ones born back in March. Now I understand why they start breeding in February.

4) Fragile, delicate, anything will chip their bones, cut their hide, trigger colic. The number of horses that die OFF the track is probably like the number of men that died from sickness in the Civil War.

5) I applaud the people who run various racehorse rescue agencies, trying to place retired racehorses with adoptive homes (rather than sending them to the renderers.) (This is not an issue with this particular farm, I think, who had one horse that appears to be 35+).

All in all, a good book, if you're prepared not to understand what he's talking at times. There is no plot, no resolution. Raising race horses is gambling, in many ways.

Comments

[shinryou.livejournal.com]

Looks like its gambling no matter which side of the horse your standing on...

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Very true. A lot of money goes into a horse before it ever races....so if they don't make good, there's a big loss....

[nezuchan.livejournal.com]

Horses in general are amazingly fragile. This is a major reason why it's called "the Sport of Kings" -- you need a fortune just to pay the vet bills.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Yeah, some of the prices he described were sky-high!

[amsaph.livejournal.com]

They really ought to wait until horses are three before putting them through any hard work, in any sport. Their growth plates aren't fully closed in any breed until they're three, and in some breeds later. Their legs are so easy to ruin, especially since there's no muscles from the knees/hocks down to protect those precious bones and tendons. (Hence the leg wraps). Unfortunately, these owners spend all that money on the horses and want to get what they can out of them ASAP to make some of that money back. What a waste! I get a little ruffled about the whole thing. Racing pushes too hard, and so do western trainers. A lot of western pleasure horses are forced to do too much before they're developmentally ready and are ruined before they're ten, with hip problems and leg problems because of the artificially slow gates expected of them. IMHO, no horse should be pushed before they're three.

Worse yet is that a lot of racehorses are started in their training as long yearlings (late in their yearling year). They're still babies!

Okay, sorry about that. Getting off my soapbox. Some aspects of the horse industry really upset me, particularly those people who feel that a horse has to make a return on their investment ASAP, rather than when each individual horse is developmentally ready to handle the stress.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I do agree with you on the pushing a horse too hard too young, thing. When I first started researching racing, I wondered why there were so few races for 2 year olds.....I didn't understand then why they shouldn't be raced that young. It was a thought provoking read.

[amsaph.livejournal.com]

Sorry. I didn't mean that you didn't agree. I just get upset with the people who only see dollar signs. I guess I vented a bit when I meant to inform.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm not offended at all. I just wanted to affirm that I agreed with you. (The author also seemed to, which made me think better of him).

I've known people who see animals that way...as a commodity...and it's something I find fundamentally alien. How can they be like that? How can they not see that they're causing suffering? But they don't care. It's truly strange....

::shaking head in disgust::

[snickelish.livejournal.com]

This sounds fascinating (especially given my recent reading material *g*). I'll have to put it on the reading list.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

You want me to mail you this copy?

[snickelish.livejournal.com]

If you won't be using it for a while, then that would be lovely! I'll email my new mailing address. Will you be wanting it back?

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Nope, probably would have taken it to used land...